Summer Fun with the Family

 

2021 Catfish Kickoff

Wheeler Lake - Browns Ferry

Time: 7:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Air Temperature: 53 - 67 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 77 Degrees
Lake Level: 507.27
Weather Conditions: Mostly Cloudy.  Clearing mid-day. Winds N-NW 9-10 mph sustained.

I've put up my long crappie rods for the summer and converted the boat over to a catfish slayer.  Today was my first 2021 day targeting catfish.  I thawed out some gizzard shad for the poles and some old threadfin to float some jugs and launched this morning at Cowford.  We had a cold front push through yesterday and it was cold for a late May day.  The cloud cover and north wind didn't help the temperature.

I dropped 6 jugs in from on my neighborhood and went down past the nuclear plant boils where the secondary channel spits and dropped 7 more.  I moved down past the powerline island and dropped 7 more there and then returned to the nuclear plant to drop my pole.

I attempted the livesocope today targeting catfish, but I can't say it made a difference like it does with crappie.  I concentrated on the pipeline dropoff near the green buoy.  I caught 3 nice fish on my first 3 passes.  I hung around bouncing bottom with cut gizzard shad and picked up another one before heading back to check jugs.

I caught a couple fish on the first jug drop, but only caught one total out of the other 14 jugs.  I decided to pick up these jugs. I headed back to the nuclear plant and gave it another go.  I wasn't having much luck near the green buoy, so I move to the middle of the channel near the dropoff and hit a good honey hole.  I picked up 2-3 more here.  

Around 11, I decided to call it an early day and pick up the remaining jugs.  The wind never really let up and it was pretty difficult to hold position.  The weather was clearing, but I needed to get back to the house and clean fish.  I picked up another could on the first jug drop and headed home.

It was an excellent start to my catfish season.  I ended up catching 12 and keeping 10 for the freezer. 3 of the 4 channel cats were still holding eggs, so the spawn is still active. One fish was slightly over 10 lbs and I threw it back.  Most were good eating size.  Will hit it again in another week or two and start running trotlines soon.